Trips

Costa Rica: January 2004

Leah and I along with 11 other friends rented a house at Sugar Beach in the Guanacaste region on the Pacific Coast. The house was the "Grand Villa" of the Sugar Beach Hotel. Leah did a phenomenal job organizing the trip. The area is a tropical dry forest with a great number of reefs and islands close to shore. Rocky headlands, low moisture deciduous trees, and a dry sunny climate that is an ideal balance between warmth and the cooling effects of the equatorial Trade winds. I'll elaborate even more once I have time. For now here's the not-fully-uploaded picture gallery:

Costa Rica 2004

Dominican Republic: February 2004

The company (Dynamic Logic) for which I worked five years in NYC treated us and a guest (Leah of course), to go the Caribbean for our yearly off-site and strategy meeting. Two mornings of meetings together with afternoons and at least one full day of free-time. We stayed at the Occidental Allegro resort. The beach was very paradaisical, the resort was good too, barring the unimpressive clientele and the aggressive staff (stark opposite to the CR disposition) which has made me even more wary of standard resorts. Overall though, we had a great time. We hung out with friends from work and their guests, I did some snorkeling with my new Sherwood mask and snorkel and even went sailing on a small catamaran for the first time. The beach is a white sand expanse dotted by palm trees and lapped by translucent water with few waves (a barrier reef a few miles of shore marks the breakpoint). Dan took some pictures:

Dominican Republic 2004